Dark City Kings are muppets. We are lost toys. We are the last romantics. We still believe that 3-minute pop songs are the greatest art form of all time. With “Love is Punk” we really did an almost live recording. We played together in the room and then we did a little layering. This album has all the emotions: sadness and trauma and anger and rebellion and laughter and fun and much love and heartbreak. We practiced in a cabin on a dirt road in Swannanoa, in the oldest mountains. The energy of this moment hangs in the air – ready to combust. We try to be as open as possible and to hear all the magic around us.
Where are you based?
Black Mountain, NC
How long have you been making music?
Some of us have been making music together for 12 years, but this version of Dark City Kings is two years old.
What genre would you consider your music to be?
Soul Rebels. We take all the light and love from folk music and garage rock and punk and traditional and even pop.
What inspired you to pursue a career in music?
There was a moment when everything was about music. Every conversation. Every movie. Every book. It was all about finding the next band and the next song. Then listening to that song over and over again. How does it work? How does three chords and the truth work? We had to figure this out. So this is the time of kings and queens. There’s no point in being afraid anymore. So we put down our fears and picked up our dreams.
What are your biggest musical influences?
Blondie. Duran Duran. The Waterboys. The Clash. The Cure.
Are you signed to a label or are you an independent artist?
Independent.
What have been the biggest challenges in your music career?
You want the honest answer? The biggest challenge has been self-belief. 99.9% of this world says this is crazy. There have been many different variations of this band – and the hardest part is believing that the people and influences are actually perfect.
How many songs or albums have you released to date?
2 albums and a double single.
Can you tell us a few things about your latest release?
Kevin Moloney (producer engineer of Sinead O’Connor/U2) moved to Asheville and reached out to us. We all started hanging out together in an old cabin on a dirt road in Swannanoa. Love Is Punk is the album when we shed our skin. These are a collection of songs that we held up to the light, the showed our influences and who we honored, and then we started to take the next step beyond. True Believer is traditional. New Shoes is garage rock. But some of these songs are slippery, as we move past genre’s. Anxiety 7 is a shimmery love song about the anxiety of love. Party Clothes focuses on the costumes we wear to be cool. Buckminster Fuller is telling the story of Black Mountain College by a band of Ramones/Muppets. Love Is Punk is about how being in a band is like being in a relationship. These songs became harder and harder to define – as they became more personal and more true to the Dark City Kings sound.
Any plans for new music or upcoming projects we should know about?
We recently went back into the studio with Kevin Moloney. The next album is catchy songs about heartbreak – and capture some of the energy of floods of the Southern Appalachians and the turmoil of 2025.
